1/23 Spooky-almost 6mo OTJ-AMBG 49

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Monique & Spooky

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So here we are at "old timers" day. Don't really consider us oldtimers (niether one of us is that old! :-D ) but our case is unique and might be of interest to newbies.

WCR:
Special Agent Spooky Mulder is now 4.8 years old, all black with green eyes, weight about 4 kg. Both he and his 1/2 brother Socks (5 years) are strictly indoor cats (although Spooky does go out on the leash) both are toilet trained and have been using only the human toilet for over 1 year. He was diagnosed in December of 2008 (at 3 years old) and began on Caninsulin. It was a rollercoaster of BG numbers and emotions. Spooky is/was a dry food addict and refused to even look at anything else. he didn't take treats either, only HIS dry food from his dish. This complicated things extremely. He was mostly free feeding with meant I had no control over his BG. When I tried removing the food and establishing mealtimes he became intolerant and started destroying things in my house. After several months I felt we weren't getting anywhere and I wanted to try Lantus insulin which I had read about and was being encouraged to switch by the German forum. My vet was not so cooperative and insisted that he could not legally Rx a human insulin, if I wanted to try that I would have to have another doctor prescribe it, and he couldn't help me because he had very little experience with Lantus and had seen other people with bad experiences. I asked my own doctor for a private Rx for Lantus, at which time he agreed then offered me Levemir because he happened to have a few samples of it. In addition the German forum was doing a study simular to the Lantus study for cats on Levemir, which was producing simular results.

We began Levemir and never looked back. It was a rough beggining but we started to get some better numbers and ravenous hunger subsided and I could begin trying the mealtime feedings again. My diningroom chairs did not survive the transition, but eventually Spooky began trying something other than Purina One dry! For quite some time he would only eat tuna fish, then eventually I could mix some other flavors into it. The whole time he was still eating some dry food. Gradually the dry portions became smaller and the insulin dosage decreased. After 9 months of transitioning him to canned food he finally stopped getting dry! I discovered it is almost impossible to get a cat below 50 mg/dl on a high carb free fed diet! We spent forever shooting microdoses of Levemir just to off set the high carbs he was eating. Eventually we decided we had to give it a try and Spooky completed his OTJ trail on July 31, 2009. Since September he has not had anymore dry food. He is still very fussy about what he eats. He will now eat anything off my plate :evil: Anything forbidden that he can steal (cookies, bread, cucumbers, butter) but he will only eat 2 varieties of canned food, which we are now slowly trying to mix in some other brands. I recovered my diningroom chairs recently and already in protest of the attempted "poisoning" of his favorite food I have new damages :cry: .

So look at our SS, keep in mind we were not on a low carb diet and were doing things quite "German" :mrgreen: We had a great time here in LL and have since witnessed numerous miracles. Spooky still likes to see all the other kitties pictures when I visit LL!

The new HP "all-in-one" fax, copy, scan, cat bed.... I think he's smiling?
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Here is Socks watching TV
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Hi Monique, Spooky Mulder and Socks

Always like hearing your zany adventures with Spooky Mulder. What a fussnut he was and still is, yearning for those cookies :lol:
I find it amazing the things you can train Spooky on, if you can do the toilet training and the dry food transitioning, you can do anything with this fussnut cat!

Thank you for updating!

EDIT to add: Holy Spooky! I forgot to add - look at that AMBG!! Congratulations on 6 months OTJ Monique and Spooky! party_cat party_cat party_cat
 
Aww, Monique thank you for sharing your story with us. What a spirit he has!! :-D

Congrats to Spooky for his 6 months OTJ!!! party_cat dancing_cat :RAHCAT

PS - Both Spooky and Socks are precious. I think he is smiling ;-)
 
Congrats. I laugh every time I see you post thinking of how you tried everything to get him to eat cat food. So glad it all worked out. It was a journey for all of us. Pics are adorable.
 
Thanks for posting and sharing your story and photos. I love the HP scanner. I need to get one of those! I think it's great for OTJ kitties to open a condo like this. Very educational for everyone else.
 
Love hearing the fantastic update and what a story it was. My DH was reading it and had tears is his laughing so hard at "Special Agent Spooky". Stories like this are just what the newbies need to read. Congrats on 6 months and a beautiful number this morning.
 
Oh Monique....I feel so bad to be laughing each time you mention your dining room chairs....but it is a funny story!!!
We put up with so much from our dear furry friends and their very fussy ways. Food can be such an issue and it is a sore spot in your home for sure! Your perseverance is a good example to us all!!! :mrgreen: Congratulations on Spooky's 6 month OTJ! :thumbup

Amazing that you potty trained both your kitties! That is quite an accomplishment!
Enjoyed your post Monique... :-D

And many thanks to you for being there for the three of us. It's so good of you to stop by and visit us...I have appreciated
your words of wisdom all these months since I came on the FDMB. Your name is familiar to all the newbies I am sure since you
are very generous with your visits to us all here :mrgreen: Your experience and encouraging words are valued by us here and we thank you so very much for being such a wonderful part of our experience!

Thank you for all you have done....scritches to Spooky and Socks.... :YMHUG: LOVE the pix!!!
 
Thanks for sharing Monique. It's good to know your (and Spooky's) story.

It's sad he destroyed your dining room chairs, but yes it is funny. And a darn good story.
 
A great story Monique and an inspiration to all those newbies and long-timers that struggle with dry food issues.
I also love hearing the great bean stories......I feel like we all know you so well.

Please continue to come by Putty's condo and visit early and often.....he likes it when you order him to go green. :mrgreen:
 
I just love your post Monique! Did you ever take pictures of those chairs? I seem to remember one picture, but I would have loved to see a good action shot...maybe on in which Spooky was giving you the "evil eye" as he was shredding the chair. :mrgreen:
 
Happy almost 6 months OTJ...great Spooky stories.......you show an amazing level of patience, in transitioning to wet food, truly an inspiration! Soory to hear about the dining room chairs.

Sherry & Zoe
 
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